Regional focus/area studies

Self as other: Amar Singh's diary as reflexive 'native' ethnography

Article Abstract:

Amar Singh, member of British military and Indian royalty in the early twentieth century kept dairies which reflected constructions of himself and observations on his culture, colonial life, the British military, and social aspects of the times. Through his subjective observations, Singh unites himself and a narrating other, acting as author, informant, and ethnographer. Singh's diaries were kept for over 44 years and comprise 89 volumes of up to 800 manuscript pages each.

The car and the palanquin: rival accounts of the 1895 riot in Kalugumalai, South India

Article Abstract:

Official accounts of the 1895 riot in Kalugumalai, India, are one-sided and attempt to minimize the complicity and responsibility of the police and local judiciary. An examination of the history of the town shows a lower-caste group called Nadars converted to Catholicism to gain higher status, angering local Hindus. Examinations of Hindu-Christian rivalry in South India requires a different theoretical framework than Hindu-Muslim rivalry in the North.

Nehru and the British

Article Abstract:

Jawaharlal Nehru was a member of one of the most anglicized clans of India. Gandhi's arrival on the Indian scene in 1919 changed Nehru's life and also attracted his father to politics. When India became independent, Nehru justified the country's continued membership in the British commonwealth almost with a Gandhian idiom. To Nehru, this was a happy ending to the struggle between Indian nationalism and the British empire.